One of the most well-known dishes in Europe of Senegalese cuisine (although of Malian origin) is mafe or maafe, a rather widespread recipe throughout West and Central Africa.
It is stewed and cooked in sauce, variable according to the recipe, dipped in peanut butter.
Mainly beef is used but also other meats are sometimes used, to meet the various tastes: pork, chicken, lamb and, in our days, there are also vegetarian variants of the mafe. Generally in the classic recipe the meat is cooked with peanuts, onions, tomatoes, garlic, cappuccino cabbage and other green leafy vegetables.
In regional variations, other local ingredients are added or used to replace the classic ones: corn, ocher, chillies, carrots, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, cassava.
Once ready, the mafe is accompanied by a cereal dish, generally rice but sometimes also millet, barley, fonio, rye, cous cous .
The number of spices used to prepare the mafe varies from region to region and from family to family, normally there is pepper, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cumin. The common name with which it has spread and the various local names with which it is called, describe it perfectly: "peanut butter sauce".
So let's take a look at the details of this classic African cuisine dish as it could be served in one of the best restaurants in Dakar .
Ingredients
> Peanut oil;
> About 1 kg of meat;
> 1 teaspoon of paprika;
> ½ teaspoon of pepper;
> 1 onion;
> ½ cup peanut butter;
> 4 tomatoes;
> 3 or 4 cloves of garlic;
> parsley;
> ½ kg of potatoes or carrots.
Preparation
In a large pot we will boil the meat already salted together with the onion. It can be boiled in water, in meat or vegetable broth, or in a mixture of the two. It will remain there until it reaches an acceptable level of softness. Once it is tender we will put it aside and do the same with the boiling broth.
Now whisk the tomatoes with garlic and parsley, in another pot we will boil our oil before adding the touches of tender meat and after a while we will also add our pureed vegetables and spices . Turn constantly for ten minutes.
After this time it will be time to put the flame at minimum to add the potatoes, carrots, peanut butter and the broth of the first boil . At this point we will only have to wait for the potatoes and carrots to be crumbly and well cooked and that the consistency of the sauce is dense enough, after which we can consider our mafe ready.
For lovers of spicy, some habanero peppers can be blended together with tomatoes, while for those who want to try more typically African recipes, potatoes can be substituted with cassava, yam, taro or sweet potato .
At this point all that remains is to serve and enjoy good rice, millet or couscous.
